European Union (EU) ORIGINS

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1 European Union (EU) Flag of the European Union. Composition of the European Union. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. European Union (EU), international organization comprising 28 European countries and governing common economic, social, and security policies. Originally con ned to western Europe, the EU undertook a robust expansion into central and eastern Europe in the early 21st century. The EU s members are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The EU was created by the Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force on November 1, The treaty was designed to enhance European political and economic integration by creating a single currency (the euro), a uni ed foreign and security policy, and common citizenship rights and by advancing cooperation in the areas of immigration, asylum, and judicial affairs. The EU was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2012, in recognition of the organization s efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe. ORIGINS The EU represents one in a series of efforts to integrate Europe since World War II. At the end of the war, several western European countries sought closer economic, social, and political ties to achieve economic growth and military security and to promote a lasting reconciliation between France and Germany. To this end, in 1951 the leaders of six countries Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany signed the Treaty of Paris, thereby, when it took effect in 1952, founding the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). (The United Kingdom had been invited to join the ECSC and in 1955 sent a representative to observe discussions about its ongoing development, but the Labour government of Clement Attlee declined membership, owing perhaps to a variety of factors, including the illness of key ministers, a desire to maintain economic independence, and a failure to grasp the community s impending signi cance.) The ECSC created a free-trade area for several key economic and military resources: coal, coke, steel, scrap, and iron ore. To manage the ECSC, the treaty established several supranational institutions: a High Authority to administrate, a Council of Ministers to legislate, a Common Assembly to formulate policy, 1/12

2 and a Court of Justice to interpret the treaty and to resolve related disputes. A series of further international treaties and treaty revisions based largely on this model led eventually to the creation of the EU. CREATION OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY Signing of the Treaty of Rome, March 25, AP Images On March 25, 1957, the six ECSC members signed the two Treaties of Rome that established the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) which was designed to facilitate cooperation in atomic energy development, research, and utilization and the European Economic Community (EEC). The EEC created a common market that featured the elimination of most barriers to the movement of goods, services, capital, and labour, the prohibition of most public policies or private agreements that inhibit market competition, a common agricultural policy (CAP), and a common external trade policy. Map showing the composition of the European Economic Community (EEC) from 1957, when it was formed Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The treaty establishing the EEC required members to eliminate or revise important national laws and regulations. In particular, it fundamentally reformed tariff and trade policy by abolishing all internal tariffs by July It also required that governments eliminate national regulations favouring domestic industries and cooperate in areas in which they traditionally had acted independently, such as international trade (i.e., trade with countries outside the EEC). The treaty called for common rules on anticompetitive and monopolistic behaviour and for common inland transportation and regulatory standards. Recognizing social policy as a fundamental component of economic integration, the treaty also created the European Social Fund, which was designed to enhance job opportunities by facilitating workers geographic and occupational mobility. Signi cantly, the treaty s common market reforms did not extend to agriculture. The CAP, which was implemented in 1962 and which became the costliest and most controversial element of the EEC and later the EU, relied on state intervention to protect the living standards of farmers, to promote agricultural self-suf ciency, and to ensure a reliable supply of products at reasonable prices. 2/12

3 Like the ECSC, the EEC established four major governing institutions: a commission, a ministerial council, an assembly, and a court. To advise the Commission and the Council of Ministers on a broad range of social and economic policies, the treaty created an Economic and Social Committee. In 1965 members of the EEC signed the Brussels Treaty, which merged the commissions of the EEC and Euratom and the High Authority of the ECSC into a single commission. It also combined the councils of the three organizations into a common Council of Ministers. The EEC, Euratom, and the ECSC collectively referred to as the European Communities later became the principal institutions of the EU. The Commission (of cially known as the European Commission) consists of a permanent civil service directed by commissioners. It has had three primary functions: to formulate community policies, to monitor compliance with community decisions, and to oversee the execution of community law. Initially, commissioners were appointed by members to renewable four-year terms, which were later extended to ve years. The Commission is headed by a president, who is selected by the heads of state or heads of government of the organization s members. In consultation with member governments, the president appoints the heads of the Directorate-Generals, which manage speci c areas such as agriculture, competition, the environment, and regional policy. The Commission has shared its agenda-setting role with the European Council (not to be confused with the Council of Europe, an organization that is not an EU body), which consists of the leaders of all member countries. Established in 1974, the European Council meets at least twice a year to de ne the long-term agenda for European political and economic integration. The European Council is led by a president, an of ce that originally rotated among the heads of state or heads of government of member countries every six months. Upon the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the presidency was made permanent, with the of ceholder being selected by European Council members. The president of the European Council serves a term of two and a half years renewable once and functions as the face of the EU in policy matters. The rst president of the EU, as the of ce came to be known, was former Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy. The main decision-making institution of the EEC and the European Community (as the EEC was renamed in 1993) and the EU has been the Council of the European Union (originally the Council of Ministers), which consists of ministerial representatives. The composition of the council changes frequently, as governments send different representatives depending on the policy area under discussion. All community legislation requires the approval of the council. The president of the council, whose of ce rotates among council members every six months, manages the legislative agenda. Council meetings are chaired by a minister from the country that currently holds the presidency. The exception to this rule is the Foreign Affairs Council, which, since the rati cation of the Lisbon Treaty, is under the permanent supervision of the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. The Common Assembly, renamed the European Parliament in 1962, originally consisted of delegates from national parliaments. Beginning in 1979, members were elected directly to 3/12

4 ve-year terms. The size of members delegations varies depending on population. The Parliament is organized into transnational party groups based on political ideology e.g., the Party of European Socialists, the European People s Party, the European Federation of Green Parties, and the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party. Until 1987 the legislature served only as a consultative body, though in 1970 it was given joint decisionmaking power (with the Council of Ministers) over community expenditures. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) interprets community law, settles con icts between the organization s institutions, and determines whether members have ful lled their treaty obligations. Each member selects one judge, who serves a renewable six-year term; to increase ef ciency, after the accession of 10 additional countries in 2004 the ECJ was allowed to sit in a grand chamber of only 13 judges. Eight impartial advocates-general assist the ECJ by presenting opinions on cases before the court. In 1989 an additional court, the Court of First Instance, was established to assist with the community s increasing caseload. The ECJ has established two important legal doctrines. First, European law has direct effect, which means that treaty provisions and legislation are directly binding on individual citizens, regardless of whether their governments have modi ed national laws accordingly. Second, community law has supremacy over national law in cases where the two con ict. The promulgation of the Lisbon Treaty signaled the acceptance of these legal doctrines by national courts, and the ECJ has acquired a supranational legal authority. Throughout the 1970s and 80s the EEC gradually expanded both its membership and its scope. In 1973 the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland were admitted, followed by Greece in 1981 and Portugal and Spain in (The United Kingdom had applied for membership in the EEC in 1963 and in 1966, but its application was vetoed by French Pres. Charles de Gaulle.) The community s common external trade policy generated pressure for common foreign and development policies, and in the early 1970s the European Political Cooperation (EPC; renamed the Common Foreign and Security Policy by the Maastricht Treaty), consisting of regular meetings of the foreign ministers of each country, was established to coordinate foreign policy. In 1975 the European Regional Development Fund was created to address regional economic disparities and to provide additional resources to Europe s most deprived areas. In the same year, members endorsed the Lomé Convention, a development-assistance package and preferential-trade agreement with numerous African, Caribbean, and Paci c countries. Members also made several attempts to manage their exchange rates collectively, resulting in the establishment of the European Monetary System in SINGLE EUROPEAN ACT The Single European Act (SEA), which entered into force on July 1, 1987, signi cantly expanded the EEC s scope. It gave the meetings of the EPC a legal basis, and it called for more intensive coordination of foreign policy among members, though foreign policy decisions were made outside community institutions. The agreement brought the 4/12

5 European Regional Development Fund formally into the community s treaties as part of a new section on economic and social cohesion that aimed to encourage the development of economically depressed areas. As a result of the act, there was a substantial increase in funding for social and regional programs. The SEA also required the community s economic policies to incorporate provisions for the protection of the environment, and it provided for a common research and technological-development policy, which was aimed primarily at funding transnational research efforts. More generally, the SEA set out a timetable for the completion of a common market. A variety of legal, technical, scal, and physical barriers continued to limit the free movement of goods, labour, capital, and services. For example, differences in national health and safety standards for consumer goods were a potential impediment to trade. To facilitate the completion of the common market by 1992, the community s legislative process was modi ed. Originally, the Commission proposed legislation, the Parliament was consulted, and the Council of Ministers made a nal decision. The council s decisions generally needed unanimity, a requirement that gave each member a veto over all legislation. The SEA introduced quali ed majority voting for all legislation related to the completion of the common market. Under this system, each member was given multiple votes, the number of which depended on national population, and approval of legislation required roughly twothirds of the votes of all members. The new procedure also increased the role of the European Parliament. Speci cally, legislative proposals that were rejected by the Parliament could be adopted by the Council of Ministers only by a unanimous vote. THE MAASTRICHT TREATY The Maastricht Treaty (formally known as the Treaty on European Union), which was signed on February 7, 1992, created the European Union. The treaty met with substantial resistance in some countries. In Denmark, for example, voters who were worried about infringements upon their country s sovereignty defeated a referendum on the original treaty in June 1992, though a revised treaty was approved the following May. Voters in France narrowly approved the treaty in September, and in July 1993 British Prime Minister John Major was forced to call a vote of con dence in order to secure its passage. An amended version of the treaty of cially took effect on November 1, The treaty consisted of three main pillars: the European Communities, a common foreign and security policy, and enhanced cooperation in home (domestic) affairs and justice. The treaty changed the name of the European Economic Community to the European Community (EC), which became the primary component of the new European Union. The agreement gave the EC broader authority, including formal control of community policies on development, education, public health, and consumer protection and an increased role in environmental protection, social and economic cohesion, and technological research. It also established EU citizenship, which entailed the right of EU citizens to vote and to run for 5/12

6 of ce in local and European Parliament elections in their country of residence, regardless of national citizenship. The Maastricht Treaty speci ed an agenda for incorporating monetary policy into the EC and formalized planning that had begun in the late 1980s to replace national currencies with a common currency managed by common monetary institutions. The treaty de ned a set of convergence criteria that speci ed the conditions under which a member would qualify for participation in the common currency. Countries were required to have annual budget de cits not exceeding 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), public debt under 60 percent of GDP, in ation rates within 1.5 percent of the three lowest in ation rates in the EU, and exchange-rate stability. The members that quali ed were to decide whether to proceed to the nal stage the adoption of a single currency. The decision required the establishment of permanent exchange rates and, after a transition period, the replacement of national currencies with the common currency, called the euro. Although several countries failed to meet the convergence criteria (e.g., in Italy and Belgium public debt exceeded 120 percent of GDP), the Commission quali ed nearly all members for monetary union, and on January 1, 1999, 11 countries Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain adopted the currency and relinquished control over their exchange rates. Greece failed to qualify, and Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom chose not to apply for membership. Greece was admitted to the euro beginning in Initially used only by nancial markets and businesses, the euro was introduced for use by the general public on January 1, The Maastricht Treaty signi cantly modi ed the EEC s institutions and decision-making processes. The Commission was reformed to increase its accountability to the Parliament. Beginning in 1995, the term of of ce for commissioners, who now had to be approved by the Parliament, was lengthened to ve years to correspond to the terms served by members of the Parliament. The ECJ was granted the authority to impose nes on members for noncompliance. Several new institutions were created, including the European Central Bank, the European System of Central Banks, and the European Monetary Institute. The treaty also created a regional committee, which served as an advisory body for commissioners and the Council of Ministers on issues relevant to subnational, regional, or local constituencies. One of the most radical changes was the reform of the legislative process. The range of policies subject to quali ed majority voting in the Council of Ministers was broadened. The treaty also endowed the Parliament with a limited right of rejection over legislation in most of the areas subject to quali ed majority voting, and in a few areas, including citizenship, it was given veto power. The treaty formally incorporated the Court of Auditors, which was created in the 1970s to monitor revenue and expenditures, into the EC. As part of the treaty s second pillar, members undertook to de ne and implement common foreign and security policies. Members agreed that, where possible, they would adopt common defense policies, which would be implemented through the Western European 6/12

7 Union, a security organization that includes many EU members. Joint actions which were not subject to monitoring or enforcement by the Commission or the ECJ required unanimity. The EU s third pillar included several areas of common concern related to the free movement of people within the EU s borders. The elimination of border controls con icted with some national immigration, asylum, and residency policies and made it dif cult to combat crime and to apply national civil codes uniformly, thus creating the need for new Europe-wide policies. For example, national asylum policies that treated third-country nationals differently could not, in practice, endure once people were allowed to move freely across national borders. ENLARGEMENT AND POST-MAASTRICHT REFORMS On January 1, 1995, Sweden, Austria, and Finland joined the EU, leaving Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland as the only major western European countries outside the organization. Norway s government twice (1972 and 1994) attempted to join, but its voters rejected membership on each occasion. Switzerland tabled its application in the early 1990s. Norway, Iceland, and the members of the EU (along with Liechtenstein) are members of a free trade area called the European Economic Area, which allows freedom of movement for goods, services, capital, and people. Two subsequent treaties revised the policies and institutions of the EU. The rst, the Treaty of Amsterdam, was signed in 1997 and entered into force on May 1, Building on the social protocol of the Maastricht Treaty, it identi ed as EU objectives the promotion of employment, improved living and working conditions, and proper social protection; added sex-discrimination protections and transferred asylum, immigration, and civil judicial policy to the community s jurisdiction; granted the Council of Ministers the power to penalize members for serious violations of fundamental human rights; and gave the Parliament veto power over a broad range of EC policies as well as the power to reject the European Council s nominee for president of the Commission. A second treaty, the Treaty of Nice, was signed in 2001 and entered into force on February 1, Negotiated in preparation for the admission of new members from eastern Europe, it contained major reforms. The maximum number of seats on the Commission was set at 27, the number of commissioners appointed by members was made the same at one each, and the president of the Commission was given greater independence from national governments. Quali ed majority voting in the Council of Ministers was extended to several new areas. Approval of legislation by quali ed voting required the support of members representing at least 62 percent of the EU population and either the support of a majority of members or a supermajority of votes cast. Although national vetoes remained in areas such as taxation and social policy, countries choosing to pursue further integration in limited areas were not precluded from doing so. 7/12

8 After the end of Cold War, many of the former communist countries of eastern and central Europe applied for EU membership. However, their relative lack of economic development threatened to hinder their full integration into EU institutions. To address this problem, the EU considered a strati ed system under which subsets of countries would participate in some components of economic integration (e.g., a free trade area) but not in others (e.g., the single currency). Turkey, at the periphery of Europe, also applied for membership, though its application was controversial because it was a Composition of the European Union. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. predominantly Islamic country, because it was widely accused of human rights violations, and because it had historically tense relations with Greece (especially over Cyprus). Despite opposition from those who feared that expansion of the EU would sti e consensus and inhibit the development of Europewide foreign and security policies, the EU in 2004 admitted 10 countries (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), all but two of which (Cyprus and Malta) were former communist states; Bulgaria and Romania joined in Negotiations on Turkey s membership application began in 2005 but faced numerous dif culties. Building on the limited economic and political goals of the ECSC, the countries of western Europe have achieved an unprecedented level of integration and cooperation. The degree of legal integration, supranational political authority, and economic integration in the EU greatly surpasses that of other international organizations. Indeed, although the EU has not replaced the nation-state, its institutions have increasingly resembled a parliamentary democratic political system at the supranational level. In 2002 the Convention on the Future of Europe, chaired by former French president Valéry Giscard d Estaing, was established to draft a constitution for the enlarged EU. Among the most dif cult problems confronting the framers of the document was how to distribute power within the EU between large and small members and how to adapt the organization s institutions to accommodate a membership that would be more than four times larger than that of the original EEC. The framers also needed to balance the ideal of deeper integration against the goal of protecting members national traditions. The drafting process evoked considerable controversy, particularly over the question of whether the constitution should mention God and the Christian heritage of much of European society (the nal version did not). The proposed constitution was signed in 2004 but required rati cation by all EU members to take effect; voters in France and the Netherlands rejected it in 2005, thereby scuttling the constitution at least in the short term. It would have created a full-time president, a European foreign minister, a public prosecutor, and a charter of fundamental rights. Under the constitution the powers of the European 8/12

9 Parliament would have been greatly expanded and the EU given a legal personality that entailed the sole right to negotiate most treaties on its members behalf. Under the leadership of Germany, work began in early 2007 on a reform treaty intended to replace the failed constitution. The resulting Lisbon Treaty, signed in December 2007, required approval by all 27 EU member countries in order to take effect. The treaty, which retained portions of the draft constitution, would establish an EU presidency, consolidate foreign policy representation for the EU, and devolve additional powers to the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, and the European Parliament. Unlike the draft constitution, the Lisbon Treaty would amend rather than replace existing treaties. The treaty failed, at least in the short term, in June 2008 after it was rejected by voters in a national referendum in Ireland. However, in a second referendum, in October 2009, Irish voters apparently concerned that another no vote would imperil Ireland s ailing economy overwhelmingly approved the treaty. A week after the Irish vote, Poland completed its rati cation of the treaty as well. At that time the treaty remained to be rati ed by only one country, the Czech Republic. Although the Czech Parliament already had approved the treaty, Czech Pres. Václav Klaus expressed concern that it would threaten Czech sovereignty and refused to sign it. In early November, after the Czech Constitutional Court ruled that the treaty did not imperil the Czech constitution, Klaus reluctantly endorsed the document, completing the country s rati cation process. Having been approved by all 27 member countries, the treaty entered into force on December 1, THE EURO-ZONE DEBT CRISIS Demonstrators protesting against the austerity measures implemented by the Greek government, May Portokalis/Shutterstock.com The sovereign debt crisis that rocked the euro zone beginning in 2009 was the biggest challenge yet faced by the members of the EU and, in particular, its administrative structures. The economic downturn began in Greece and soon spread to include Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain (collectively, the group came to be known informally as PIIGS ), threatening the survival of the single currency and, some believed, the EU itself. As con dence in the af icted economies continued to erode, rating agencies downgraded the countries creditworthiness. Borrowing costs soared as government bond yields rose, and the PIIGS countries found it increasingly dif cult to obtain nancing. A series of stopgap measures were undertaken by the EU and the International Monetary Fund in an attempt to halt the spread of the crisis, but it soon became apparent that a larger, more-organized response would be required. Representing the two largest economies in the euro zone, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy spearheaded the effort to stabilize the euro which 9/12

10 had plunged to a four-year low against the U.S. dollar and preserve the solvency of at-risk euro-zone members. A bailout package was approved for Greece in May 2010, and, over the next two years, similar rescue funds were assembled for Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Cyprus. The economic crisis, and the austerity measures associated with it, took a staggering political toll on ruling parties across the continent. Between March 2011 and May 2012, more than half of the euro zone s 17 members saw their governments collapse or change hands. The debt crisis had revealed dangerous shortcomings within the regulatory measures that governed the euro zone s shared economy, most notably the lack of any enforcement mechanism for the scal rules that were outlined in the Maastricht Treaty. EU leaders attempted to correct this with a new scal pact, signed on March 2, The treaty bound signatories to limit government de cits to 3 percent of GDP or face automatic penalties. EU leaders also created the European Stability Mechanism, a permanent bailout fund that of cially replaced the EU s temporary rescue measures in October The European Commission also proposed the integration of the euro zone s 6,000 nancial institutions into a single banking union, with oversight provided by the European Central Bank. The system would allow for the centralized supervision of banks capital reserves, as well as the restructuring or direct recapitalization of imperiled banks without regard to national boundaries. As markets calmed and the imminent danger to the euro zone began to diminish, EU leaders focused on returning the region to a path of economic growth. The bailout of the Cypriot banking sector in March 2013 was dealt with almost as a matter of course, while lingering issues, such as endemic youth unemployment, remained a subject of concern. The EU welcomed its 28th member on July 1, 2013, when Croatia completed the accession process. THE CRISIS IN UKRAINE AND THE RISE OF EUROSKEPTICISM Unidentified soldiers accompanied by Russian military vehicles patrolling Sevastopol, Ukraine, on Andrew Lubimov/AP Images In early 2014 the EU faced what was perhaps its greatest foreign policy crisis since the collapse of Yugoslavia. In November 2013 the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova signed an association agreement with the EU, pledging closer political and economic ties. Ukraine, which had been scheduled to sign the agreement, backed out at the last minute under pressure from Russia. The reversal by Ukrainian Pres. Viktor Yanukovych triggered a wave of popular protests that turned violent in February A bloody government crackdown left scores dead and hundreds wounded, and, with his political base disintegrating, Yanukovych ed to Russia. As an interim government assumed power in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, unidenti ed troops elding Russian equipment took control of key sites in Crimea, a Ukrainian autonomous republic that had a predominantly Russian 10/12

11 population. Armed gunmen seized the regional parliament building, and a pro-russian prime minister was installed. As the Russian troop buildup continued, the self-declared Crimean government announced its independence from Ukraine. A referendum was hastily scheduled, and 97 percent of Crimean voters stated their preference to join the Russian Federation. EU leaders called for dialogue and enacted economic sanctions against a number of high-ranking Kremlin of cials, and Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin completed the formal annexation of Crimea on March 21, That same day Ukrainian interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk signed a portion of the EU association agreement that had originally sparked the crisis. The Ukraine crisis expanded as pro-russian militants occupied government buildings in eastern Ukraine. An existing EU sanctions package against Russian individuals and businesses was expanded, and in April 2014 the EU, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank negotiated a $17 billion bailout deal to bolster the agging Ukrainian economy. Attention was soon focused closer to home, however, as Brussels struggled with the emergence of Euroskepticism as a popular movement. Elections for the European Parliament in May 2014 saw unprecedented wins by the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) in Britain and the National Front in France as voters across Europe turned to antiestablishment Leaders of several Euroskeptic parties (from left) Matteo Salvini of Italy s Northern League, Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Images Migrants scrambling under a razor-wire barrier on Serbia s border with Hungary, August 27, Darko Bandic/AP Images parties. While the main centre-right and centre-left coalitions retained a majority in the European Parliament, EU leaders were forced to address a strong electoral performance by parties whose stated goals were the radical restructuring or outright elimination of the de ning characteristics of the EU. In 2015 Euroskeptic parties capitalized on the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe as hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa sought asylum in the EU. Thousands perished while attempting the treacherous Mediterranean crossing, and thousands more found themselves interred in makeshift camps as countries suspended their participation in the Schengen Agreement and reimposed internal border controls. Euroskeptic leaders such as UKIP s Nigel Farage and the National Front s Marine Le Pen drew a direct link between the in ux of migrants and deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. Facing pressure from UKIP as well as Euroskeptic members of his own 11/12

12 Conservative Party, British Prime Minister David Cameron undertook a renegotiation of the relationship between the EU and the United Kingdom. Those talks were concluded in February 2016, prompting Cameron to schedule a long-promised referendum on Britain s continued membership in the EU for June Despite Cameron s relative success at achieving a special status for Britain within the EU, on June 23 some 52 percent of British voters elected to leave the EU. EU leaders pledged solidarity in the face of the Brexit, and they urged Britain to begin separation proceedings as soon as possible to restore stability to the EU. Matthew J. Gabel The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica "European Union (EU)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., Web. 20 Aug < 12/12